How to highlight and contour? What are the best highlighting and contouring products? Can you highlight and contour with powder products? What are the best products for highlighting and contouring? These are all questions that I myself have asked when I started down this little highlighting and contouring road… also questions that I get emailed, messaged, commented, and tweeted almost daily! A few months ago I went through a How To Highlight And Contour basics post complete with products and graph for easy application. That post went a bit crazy on Pinterest and has now been pinned over 30,000 times or something equally as crazy but afterwards the questions started pouring in! In my first post I was only using cream products and based the products I chose to show on that. The graph is interchangable and you can use the application guidelines for powder or cream so that was fine but I felt like I needed to share some powder products that can get the job done! Cream products are not the be all end all in the search for an answer to how to highlight and contour, I am here to tell you that powder products will do just as well and in some cases they work better then cream products depending on the look you’re going for!

How To Highlight And Contour

You can absolutely figure out how to highlight and contour with powder products! Honestly it’s pretty easy and for some people you’ll find the application easier then if you’re trying to do this with cream products like I showed in that previous post. Powder products are your friend, and to be honest some of my favorites are in fact powders. I am the type of person who likes a more defined HAC and I’d like to physically be able to see it in a subtle/not-so subtle type of way. While I don’t want to have a chiseled drag queen type of contour I want something that’s a bit more defining and really shows off my features. Powders can really come in handy here because they allow you to really build on a product if you need to and they can also aide in your highlighting and contouring routine if you’re using cream products by setting those products and giving them a little extra pep in their step. I almost always find myself adding on a powder bronzer after contouring with a cream because I want just a bit more definition and well… I love me some bronzer. I live in New Jersey, did you expect something else? 😉 I go ahead and do my regular foundation and concealer routine after applying moisturizer and primer and then I go in with powder to highlight and contour in this scenario. I wanted to give you some options in this list because if you have been around awhile you know I love me some drugstore makeup products but that doesn’t stop me from falling in love with the occasional high-end makeup product so we’re gonna talk about both! Whether you want to save or splurge in your how to highlight and contour quest, there is something here for you!

WET N WILD FERGIE SHIMMER PALETTE ‘ROSE CHAMPAGNE GLOW’ // $5.99 // Your saveoption is this amazing shimmer palette from the Fergie Centerstage Collection! This little baked beauty gives you an instant glow. Adding it to the highest point of your cheekbones and down your nose will give you instant gratification in the way that it instantly brightens up the areas of your face that you want to stand out. This is probably one of the best highlighting powders you’ll find in the drugstore. You can really build on this too so if you’re looking for a bit extra if you know that you’re going to be having pictures done this one is going to aide in that tremendously.

RIMMEL LONDON ‘NATURAL BRONZER’ // $4.29 // This is the perfect option if you’re looking to saveand will probably become one of your favorites in your quest to learn how to highlight and contour. There are a few shades to choose from so you’ll want to go with whatever matches your skin tone best without making you look orange, I have it in ‘sun bronz’ and it goes well with my Casper the friendly ghost tones! It’s more matte then most drugstore bronzers so you won’t have to worry about any glitter like fall out.

TARTE ‘PARK AVENUE PRINCESS’ BRONZER // $29 // Your splurgeoption is probably the first highend bronzer I ever tried and quickly fell head over heels in love with! This matte, waterproof mineral-based bronzing powder will deliver just the right amount of a sun-burnished glow and double as an easy contouring powder. Infused with natural, skin-softening mineral pigments, this matte bronzer helps improve skin’s texture, tone, and clarity all day long while withstanding humidity and moisture.

PHYSICIAN’S FORMULA ‘HAPPY BOOSTER’ BLUSH // $11.99 // This is one of my favorite options for the savecolumn! This blush is truly extraordinary and I don’t know what it is but I have probably hit pan on this a kagillion times and I always run right out and pick up a new one. The perfect shades of pink and mauve come together to make this a perfect blush, it sits nicely on the apples of your cheeks and even a bit on your temples for a perfect flushed look. It’s completely blendable so you can have the color be as subtle or intense as your like it!

NARS ‘ORGASM’ BLUSH // $30 // You knew this was coming for your splurgeoption, right? Orgasm from Nars is a cult favorite and one of the best blush powders I have ever used! Orgasm Blush makes cheeks blush a perfect pinky-peach flush and subtly highlights with accents of golden shimmer. The perennially pleasing, universally flattering shade is again and again a makeup artist and beauty editor favorite.

Ok, now that we have gone over all of the saveand splurgeoptions with powder products you may still be asking yourself how to highlight and contour and where do we need to be applying these products, head on over to my first “How To Highlight and Contour” post and follow the graph and just switch out your cream products for powders and you’re good to go! I’m going to be doing a follow up to this post with what brushes I recommend using for a great highlight and contour with powder products but for now check out the Becca The One Perfecting Brush that I reviewed because it will give you a stellar HAC when using it with powder products!

Now the “looking like a drag queen” dilemma you mentioned has been one of the reason behind my HAC hesitations. But you are right, powders are easier to use. I’m saving this how-to image you posted as my own guide, thank you very much!